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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA | The San Andreas fault runs through the Lake Course at Olympic Club between holes No. 2 and 5. Members call it “quake corner.”
There was a seismic event in quake corner on Sunday where Philippines star Yuka Saso rallied after back-to-back double bogeys on 2 and 3 to shoot 2-over par 73 for a 4-under 280 total, good enough to tie Nasa Hataoka and force a playoff in the U.S. Women’s Open. Saso then made an 8-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole to win and match Inbee Park as the youngest champion of the event at 19 years, 11 months and 17 days.
The earth didn’t open. But people felt the quakes of history as Saso became the first major champion, man or woman, from the Philippines.
Starting the final round a shot behind American Lexi Thompson and losing another shot when Thompson birdied the first, Saso hit a tee shot so far right on No. 2 that recent Wake Forest All-American Emilia Migliaccio, working for Golf Channel and in the gallery, immediately yelled, “Oh, jeez! FORE! FORE RIGHT!” The ball finished closer to the first fairway than to the second, and in a lie so deep it would have been hard to get a bushhog on it. Saso took a cut, but the ball stayed in the rough. Then she got it back to the fairway short of the green. A pitch and two putts later for double, she seemed out of it.
She followed that up with an equally ugly double on the par-3 third. At that point, the only two people who thought she had a chance were Saso and her caddie.
“To be honest I was really upset,” Saso said afterward. “Things weren’t going my way. But my caddie talked to me and said, ‘We have many holes to go. Trust yourself and keep going. Trust the process.’ That calmed me down and we got it done.
“I knew there were par-5s on the last few holes that were reachable so I thought that maybe I could make some birdies.”
She was even par after the two doubles until she reached those back-to-back par-5s, the 16th and 17th. Two birdies there, along with some help from Thompson, and Saso was in a playoff.
She had three putts to win it outright – the first, a downhill 12-footer at 18 in regulation that slid just low. Then she had another downhill putt on the second playoff hole that would have gotten it done. Her third chance was the 8-footer on the third playoff hole – the par-4 ninth – that won it.
Afterward, Saso thanked Rory McIlroy, the model for her golf swing. And she thanked the Philippines community, the largest minority population in Daly City, California, for all the support.
“Seeing the Philippines flags were great,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”
Steve Eubanks